Altiverb 5

[hetoreyn]

Hey everyone. Well I did it .. I managed to purchase Altiverb 5 at last and I'm looking forward to it as this really seems the thing to make mixes sounds super good.

In the meantime before it is delivered I've been playing with the Demo version and I must admit that I've not gotten a decent sound out of it. More ofthen than not the Demo version would squash all of the high end EQ out of the mix and leave it a pile of mud .. I then discovered that by moving the speaker positions around you can reclaim some of that but at the cost of clipping .. or having to then reduce any limiting or gaining you have .. thus making the song quieter.

So how do other users of Altiverb handle this. Can you simply dump your entire orchestra into one stereo .. or surround .. Altiverb instance and get what sound it says you can get .. or do you HAVE to put an instance on every group track. I'm tempted to do the latter in any case cos it seems only right.

I'm not worried that the Product will be like the demo version because plainly the demo version lacks functionailty .. and 95% of the IR's that the full product will come with and I imagine they'll be a learning curve no doubt. It would be nce to think that if one can get the mix right .. and the depth of feel that you could simply use 1 stereo instance to achive room sound but I imagine it will require at last different depths of Instances to make this work.

So my main worry is .. what to do about the loss of high end EQ .. after all I don't want ot be adding tonnes of high end just to compensate .. this is unrealistic. How is the user experiences of Altiverb?

[JWL]

One thing you might want to do is to retain your dry signal and just let Altiverb handle the color of the reverb. The more you blend the wet and dry signal in Altiverb, the greater the change of color there seems to be. I´ve gotten better results by running 100% wet signals back into an aux. You may want or need to EQ the reverb, but you really might prefer to EQ the reverb seperately from the dry signal.

Same goes for I/O signals-- running Altiverb back into an aux gives you better control over the proportions in the mix without having to worry about input clipping. You set your Altiverb I/O levels for the cleanest sound, then blend them in your mixer.

Some IRs are less intrusive. There are times when blending just a bit of wet and dry signal together on the Altiverb console can help place the orchestra in the environment a little more-- but this is much, much more of a subtle application and not by any means the end all solution. I don't even make a habit of doing this, but occasionally experiment with it to see if it adds any sense of subtle sonic cohesion.

Much of that 'color' is part of the IR-- the fingerprint of the sampled environment. Once you get your full set of IRs (and are able to disable that demo beep), you'll find it to be quite a useful plugin, I hope.

[Martin Bayless]

it might help to think on two planes, traditional reverb (tail) and placement in space (early reflections). so those who are using many instances of altiverb are using most of them with the tail removed (saving cpu) just for spatial placement (this is where moving the speakers is used). after that, running a single instance via send and return works quite well where differing levels can be applied to each instrument or group. the main ir makes quite a bit of difference. i started out using the concertgebouw and ran in to the mud problem too. switched to the sydney opera house and voila, much more open and airy. i love the cathedrals and sometimes use them with the tail shortened. it all depends on what you are after which might suggest new approaches/possibilities given the "other-worldly" nature of your music. most altiverb discussions center around traditional orchestral simulation which your music may be liberated from (meant in a good way), so i could easily hear something like chorus or flange on a send with great results. in that sense, you may be able to get by with a single main ir with others used more as sound design, especially if you already have a mechanism to place individual instruments spatially (if that is even desirable).

[hetoreyn]

Thanks for the replies fellas.

I find all that routing of dry and wet signals through sends and returns somewhat intimidating personally .. though I have been trying it I'm dissapointed at the fact that I can't control the levels from my group busses .. but rather have to assign every instrument track in logic to the Aux sends .. this is annoying when I have 50 instances [:P]

I think manipulating the dry and wet signal on Altiverb will probably suit me much better and this is the technique that thus far sounds right, and isn't too complicated for me to understand ... allright perhaps I'm being rather self denigrating .. but as I say aux sends and returns in logic are a pain to work with. I'm sure that in Pro-tools it's possible to use the Auxes for more than what Logic does.

Another learning curve ahead .. but hopefully one leading to good results.

[KMuzzey]

I've had the best luck with Altiverb when using Maarten's orchestral presets. But rather than use them in the designated hall, I use them in the Sydney Opera House setting. The correct way to set up the orchestra is in the tutorial, I believe, but it involves removing the reverb tail from the individual tracks (only using pre-delay on individual tracks) and then placing the single reverb tail on the output track. Or you can pick any single setting (like Sydney Opera, 6m cardioids) and use the stage positioning button to move the section around the stage yourself to achieve the placement that you're happiest with.

I've gotten great results from Altiverb, and I've never adjusted the wet/dry or color levels, just stuck with the original presets!

[Guy Bacos]

I also just purchased Altiverb, but am stuck with the installation: I get the: "Please choose an authorization method", but what happens after that? I already have and registered the ilok key. What do I do with this? Where's the download?

[Martin Bayless]

the altiverb forum is hands-on moderated by aram who is very responsive and helpful. he will get you going in the right direction:

http://audioease.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.cgi

[Guy Bacos]

@Martin Bayless said:

the altiverb forum is hands-on moderated by aram who is very responsive and helpful. he will get you going in the right direction:

http://audioease.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.cgi

I did that yesterday, but I guess you have to take a number.... [8o|]

Anyway, I'll probably figure out myself what I'm doing wrong.

[hetoreyn]

This caught me out too .. but I chose the Challenge of death ... I mean the Challenge and response method, and then it gave me a code . .which you use on the Audioease website .. which then gives you a return code.

I don't use an iLok so it made sense to do it that way. I'm not sure if that helps your problem but I was somewhat puzzled as to what I should do too.

Lucky I worked out how to do that ... now all I need to do is workout how to get Altiverb to do what I want [:P]